From the CEO's Desk: The Drowning Boy

When feeling threatened by something that goes wrong, the easiest way out is to shift the blame elsewhere. While successful people choose not to play the blame game, this doesn’t mean that they let things slide. It's about taking care of the issue first, and then on the tail end, review and reflect.   The key to winning the "blame game" in an organization: Make the most important thing the most important thing. Leaders ultimately determine what happens inside an organization. Fix the problem, not the fault. Make sure your people are aligned with your goal of providing value to customers. Foster a culture that is supportive and isn't worried about pointing a finger at who's to blame.   In today’s episode of the ACCESS Points Podcast, Tim Elliott and Davin Marceau are going to have an interesting conversation revolving around the story of Aesop's fable about a drowning boy, The Boy Bathing. Their focus is how this story relates to their leadership style at ACCESS and why finding fault or pointing fingers is one of the worst things that can happen in an organization.   Enjoy!   In This Episode 00:56 - The fable that left a lasting impact on the life of Tim Elliott   2:43 - How he applied the moral of the story to his leadership style at ACCESS EFM   5:30 - The challenge of scaling an organization   9:47 - How some people in the organization metaphorically throw the boy into the water   11:54 - Davin's takeaways from being with ACCESS EFM for three years   16:54 - Why failure in the organization starts at the leadership level   Favorite Quotes "If a customer goes down, is the first question out of your mouth 'Who's to blame?' or is the first question out of your mouth 'What's the fix?' And I think all too often and I'm guilty of this as well over the years too, is wanting to have a scapegoat, wanting to have somebody to point the finger at." - Davin Marceau   "It’s crazy how human nature is when something bad happens, people get defensive and they begin to point fingers at each other." - Tim Elliott   "It's not always about finding blame or pointing fingers. It's about coaching or finding out what happened." - Tim Elliott   "There's nothing worse as the business owner, as the entrepreneur, as the leader, as to see your mission not happening in your people over here arguing about why that's the problem and why it's down, and who's to blame for this and start positioning themselves politically so that they don't take a fall." - Tim Elliott   "People get super concerned about the hierarchy of needs kind of thing. They become super worried about self-preservation. And the fix of the issue becomes secondary to making sure that the boss knows that 'It's not my fault.' And all the while the one that's suffering is the customer." - Davin Marceau   "The three hardest words for people to mutter is oftentimes 'I don't know.' And it ends up affecting the customer, unfortunately, more than does anybody else." - Davin Marceau   "Failure starts at the leadership level. A hundred percent of the time, the company becomes the reflection of the leadership. And if we lead into an issue with wondering who's to blame, then we can't be upset with the people that are protecting their own butts and not wanting to save the drowning boy." - Davin Marceau   "Successful people are willing to do what the unsuccessful people are not willing to do." Tim Elliott   Visit ACCESS EFM: Website Facebook LinkedIn Twitter   Click here to listen with Access Points Podcast